When Clients Ask For Discounts

How many of your window cleaning customers ask for discounts? Here's Jurgen Appelo talking about affordability & vendors. Why are clients entitled to ask this question?

When Clients Ask for Discounts, Ask Them ... Why? (By JURGEN APPELO, Writer, Speaker, Entrepreneur, CEO of Happy Melly). I bought several new vests recently. One was from G-Star, another from Banana Republic. They were not cheap, but not unreasonably expensive, either. I paid the price the shop asked from me. What I did not do was haggle over the price with the vendor.

As a professional public speaker, I have fees, as well, which are listed publicly on my website. I am not cheap, but I'm also not unreasonably expensive. And I always try to be transparent in my pricing. That means that I prefer not to waste my time on price negotiations. Sometimes, though, potential clients contact me and say, "We'd love to hire you as a speaker. But can we get a discount?" I've found a great way to deal with these discount requests: I ask my customers, "Why?"

My usual reply also includes something alone the lines of, "Is there a specific reason you believe you are entitled to a discount?" Without my directly saying yes or no, I've thus bounced the question back to the customer(s), forcing them to consider what they're asking and to give them a chance to point out something that could be of value to me.

Sometimes, clients tell me they cannot afford my standard fee, so they're hoping to get me at half my regular price. Sometimes, they even ask me to do my work for free. "It will be a great opportunity to present your book!" they say. But this always baffles me. I have never considered asking G-Star or Banana Republic to sell me a vest at half the price, or to just give it away for free: "It will be a great opportunity to show off your t-shirts!"

If I found such vendors too expensive, I wouldn't have shopped with them at all. Instead, I would have checked out H&M or Zara. So, faced with the discount question, my next move is to tell such clients that I will happily refer them to other speakers.

Sometimes, clients are so big or famous and consider themselves so important, that the magnitude of their arrogance itself seems to qualify them for a discount. They say (or at least obviously think): "You will be able to add our name to your list of clients!"

Fortunately, my own arrogance is quite flexible and, when needed, strong enough to match that of the client: "Indeed, I will! And you can tell everyone that I visited your company, after you paid what everyone else pays!"

Sometimes, clients just love haggling, assuming there are always margins that can be squeezed. My problem with this attitude is that such clients assume that I am intentionally overpaid and that, with some negotiation, it should be possible to talk the fee down to the "proper" price. In other words, they assume I have a lack of integrity (i.e., I'm asking too much.)

Another possibility is that they assume that I so desperately need the sale that I'm willing to be underpaid, which (to me) seems like a lack of integrity on the side of the client. They might say, "You probably have a special price for friends," to which I might reply, "I have many friends and my fee is what they pay. I assume you want me to treat all my friends equally and fairly?"

And, last but not least, after I ask them, "Why?", the clients sometimes tell me, "Oh, never mind. We were just wondering." Then they proceed to pay my regular fee. I have no objections to that at all.

Notice that I don't say "no" to people who ask me for a discount. I merely ask them "Why?" because it's quite possible that they have a very good reason! It all comes down to customizing the value exchange.

It happens that some clients, for example, offer me a speaking opportunity right before or after an event that I have already booked in the same city. Having two or three events back-to-back in the same area saves me a lot of travel time and travel expenses. Obviously, that would be worth a #NoTravel discount.

It also happens sometimes that a client invites me for the third or fourth time. Obviously, I value repeat customers who develop a preference for a long-term relationship with me, which is worth a #RepeatBusiness discount.

There are some clients who order large quantities of my books. Despite the fact that authors like me earn very little per book in terms of royalties, I still appreciate that my message is distributed into the hands of many people. And so that scenario is worth a #BookOrders discount.

There is also value for me in being able to pick a topic of my own choosing and to experiment with unconventional ideas and formats in my presentations. Customers who give me the freedom to do whatever I want are entitled to an #Experimentation discount.

And then there is my much-beloved discount to discourage bureaucracy, which reduces my fee when clients don't ask me for contracts, tax records, travel receipts, bank statements, procurement forms, visa forms, birth certificates, etc. This #NoBureaucracy discount is basically a reward for good behavior.

There is something else important to realize here: All the good reasons for offering discounts that I listed above can (and should) be translated to clear, unambiguous pricing rules. After all, if you want to be seen as fair, transparent and honest, you have no other option than to apply the same rules (and discounts) to all your clients. And, yes, the rules are additive, and thus the discounts, cumulative.

When I introduce a new discount rule (sometimes because a client inspired me with a new good reason), I also decide on the start date of the new rule, as if I've just passed a new law. All customers invoiced on or after that date will be entitled to the same discount. They don't even have to remind me.

Today, I sent one of my clients an invoice with a #NoTravel discount. The client didn't ask for it. He didn't even know about it. But he earned it because he committed to adapt his own schedule to an existing conference I was attending so that I didn't have to make an extra trip.

It makes me feel good to offer a surprise discount to those who don't request one for no good reason. To make myself feel even better, I plan to be wearing one of my lovely new not-too-expensive vests.

How I Sell Without Using Discounts: People discount because they get desperate and they want to make some quick money. You’re training your customers not to purchase new things from you when they first come out, but to wait for a discount.  

When The Rubber Hits - A Startup Launchpad

We’re building a startup – one step at a time!

When The Rubber Hits The Road: Notes From A Startup Launchpad: When we launched our house-detailing service Shack Shine last spring, it was a time of champagne and celebration. The ribbon was cut and we were ready for business! Since writing last, reality has set in: turns out, the launch is actually the ‘easy’ part. Managing expectations, jumping through hoops, and staying ahead of the stress associated with startup life can be downright dirty – but thankfully, this isn’t my first rodeo.

In this second installment of Notes From A Startup Launchpad, we share some of the bumps we’ve hit early in the journey and some of the awesome moments too. Going through these early stages reminds me of the value of investing time, heart, and just a little bit of grit to get a startup off the ground – right.

Hurdle 1: The Collaboration Games

After 10 years building and operating a multi-million dollar commercial painting business, Dave Notte wanted a new challenge. He approached me in 2014 hoping that Shack Shine, a window and gutter cleaning company, could join the O2E Brands family, leverage its systems, and create an international brand through franchising.

Going into business with someone is always a gamble. Author of The Founder’s Dilemma Noam Wasserman says founders feel a great sense of ownership over their “baby” and may be resistant to change, even when it’s what’s best for the company.

Since partnering with us, Dave has had to transition from lone-wolf entrepreneur to a collaborative, managing director of a startup. He’s had to grind it out in a competitive marketplace, while doing things ‘our’ way.

“Collaboration totally slows down decision-making processes – every department at O2E Brands is involved in everything! The end results are better, but I’d be lying if I said it was an easy adjustment from making quick decisions and acting on them immediately,” Dave says.

When we encounter collaboration-related issues, we go back to the vision we created for Shack Shine at the beginning of our journey. A clear vision, or Painted Picture, mitigates some of the challenges of working in a partnership by forcing stakeholders to focus on the road ahead – rather than getting bogged down with how to get there.

Hurdle 2: Reality Can Bite

Most problems in business partnerships arise from the partnership itself, not from operations or external forces. The next issue we encountered on this startup journey had elements of both.

“I assumed the systems were dialed, documented, and replicable,” says Dave. “In reality, the launch of Shack Shine was a project that built a system to launch future brands for O2E Brands. Documenting each step was a time-consuming, expensive process.”

It’s been proven to me time and again that Michael Gerber was right when he said, “people don’t fail, systems do.” After launching You Move Me in 2013, I learned the value of doing the heavy lifting up front: we grew very quickly, launching 25 franchise locations in one day. Just as quickly, we realized that many of our processes and operations needed tweaking (or in some cases total overhauls). Retracing our steps to make up for imperfect systems was an expensive time suck and it curbed our momentum.

Although it was arduous for Dave, I insisted on going slow with Shack Shine. It’s a totally unique business in a new category – house detailing. We’re not building the system for just one business – we are creating a model than can be replicated in over 250 locations. To scale successfully, we had to fine-tune and test our systems before taking the brand public.

Dave has worked hard to create solid systems and I’m certain we’ll see that the extra effort was well worthwhile.

Hurdle 3: Every Business is Risky Business

No matter how much experience you may have, a constant feeling in any new venture is the fear of failure. “I’m concerned about having a sophomore slump. We’re taking a lot of risks,” says Dave.

Some days seem more troublesome than others, like when we have to deal with bureaucratic red tape and banking regulations for our U.S. expansion. We know that more obstacles are ahead: it’s on us to legitimize house-detailing as a new category. And to find a younger crowd of franchise partners, we’re foregoing typical recruitment methods to focus on digital channels and social media.

We’re not in our comfort zone and it’s a vulnerable feeling, but I’m encouraged by the Shack Shine’s franchise partners, who are spirited, young entrepreneurs. Despite his understandable worries, Dave is an intuitive businessman and we have a strong, well-balanced partnership. And we have experience and proven systems to fall back on.

When the going gets tough…

The honeymoon period is over and the realities of startup life have set in. But there are plenty of small wins that keep us thinking about the next bottle of champagne. Stress, anticipation, and the exhilaration associated with risk-taking are all part of the entrepreneurial journey – and what make launching a new brand worthwhile in the end.

I’m the founder and CEO of O2E (Ordinary to Exceptional) Brands. I’m passionate about helping others grow small to medium businesses and corporate culture. Tweet me @brianscudamore

Ordinary To Exceptional

Our parent company O2E Brands is ordinary to exceptional, and everything we do is about taking ordinary businesses, we made it exceptional through the branding and the customer experience. Now we're doing the same thing to the painting world, the moving world, the house detailing and window washing world.

Entrepreneur Interview - Brian Scudamore: The break-in alarm wouldn't stop screaming - and I knew I was screwed. Just as self-made multi-millionaire Brian Scudamore, the person I was about to interview, walked through the front door of the building, the ticket machine had malfunctioned and let out an ear shattering series of shrieks. We hadn't met before. "Hi, I'm you're 12:00" I tried to smile over the screeching.

Luckily, Brian had a sense of humor and playfully shrugged it off. " Trying to break into the building?" he joked, before retreating from the turmoil. After I managed to get the machine to calm down, I boarded the lift and took it up to the offices of his empire's parent company O2E Brands. Greeted by smiling secretaries at the front desk, coffee was thrust into my hand and I was seated by a table in the middle of the large and colorfully decorated office space.

As I waited for Brian, I could see that Brian's story was reflected on the walls of the office. He started 1-800-Got-Junk in Vancouver, BC in 1989 to help pay for college, and there was a huge wall size photo capturing where he started. Having began with one truck which he bought for $700 dollars, the image stood in stark contrast to the fast-paced modern office where I sat now.

Brian started "The Rubbish Boys" as a way to pay for college in 1989.

Over the next decades Brian used his philosophy of taking ordinary businesses like junk removal, and executing them in extraordinary ways. He has tackled junk removal, painting, the moving industry and most recently window washing & gutter cleaning services. The parent company for his businesses is O2E Brands, which stands for ordinary to extraordinary.

Brian soon joined me and we began recording almost immediately - below is the transcription from our conversation. It's geared toward advice for upcoming entrepreneurs, with a focus on the theme "tips for my 25 year old self". However, upon finishing the interview there are great insights for people at all levels of their entrepreneurial journey.

What is your opinion for someone who just got out of high school and they like the idea of being an entrepreneur - what would you recommend that person does?

Brian: For me, my education was learning on the job. It was getting out there and buying a truck and starting to haul junk. It's hard to learn about entrepreneurism in school from a professor who's never run a business.

So for me, someone who's 18 that wants to get out and do something on their own; go learn from an entrepreneurial business like O2E brands. We look for people that are entrepreneurial and we say "How do we help you be an entrepreneur" how do we help you find your entry point into this wonderful world of entrepreneurship. So people will often start here, learn things, and go start their own business.

Find a place to get your learning; is it from mentors? Is it from asking questions of other people? Is it working in an entrepreneurial business and learning from them? Or is it just taking the leap like I did?

In school did you ever have a "small man's complex" where other kids thought you were stupid, but now it's kind of the other way around?

Brian: I've never really been one to care what people think, so for me there were some people that thought, "Why are you not into school, why aren't you working hard, why aren't you focused?" They might be looking back going, "Okay, well it's worked out for him!"

Brian Scudamore is the Founder and CEO of O2E Brands.

Tell me a little about your new window washing & gutter cleaning company Shack Shine.

Brian: Shack Shine is our newest brand, and it's going really well. I partnered up with Dave Notte who created this idea; I didn't love the look and feel of the brand but I thought the concept was great.

Shack Shine is a window cleaning, gutter cleaning, and power washing service based in Vancouver.

And I know you are very serious about branding.

Brian: It's kind of funny, but I went and hired our branding guy to recreate the Shack Shine look and feel before Dave and I actually did a deal. I was THAT confident that we would come to a deal. I knew that the name worked, but I said let's create something that VISUALLY looks right and it turned out really well.

One of the things that I was reading about that you do is that you're REALLY meticulous with branding. You said that you spent $200,000 on a logo, and I had never heard of that before for a home services company.

Brian: With WOW 1 DAY PAINTING the colors were very collegiate; they were blue and orange. I looked at the brand and thought with an industry filled with college run painting companies, we wanted to stand out. So we looked at colors and green is fresh, it's rejuvenating, so we really liked the color. We hired a branding company to help us create the right look, and they got us part way there, but not all the way. So we hired another branding company to come in and take over and they got us further, and then we actually went back to the original guy to take it across the finish line. So it was interesting that we had two branding companies work on it. It cost us more money than maybe it should have, but it took the time and energy to get the look and the feel right.

We hired a branding company to help us create the right look.

But the thing was was that you understood very well what was broken and you fixed it and it worked. And the ROI (return on investment) on that kind of branding has been, well what was it?

Brian: It was about $200,000 to re-brand. It was expensive, but the $200,000 wasn't hiring one company, it was the inefficiencies of us spending one year trying to re-create the new look and feel.

That's entrepreneurship, though?

Brian: Exactly; and once we got it right we shared it with James Alisch, who's our managing director. I shared it with him before he was a part of the brand, and he got excited about the vision of what we could create; revolutionizing the painting industry - a very "mom and pop" fragmented industry. Just the look of the logo was enough to bring him in to go, "Yeah I can see it." Our customers IMMEDIATELY got excited about the new look and feel, and it's been great.

Looking at the way that you've done things, you took world class business chops and applied them to things that were being done inefficiently. And now you've got this business that does a world class service, world class branding. You're obviously run well and centralized, so it's hard to compete with you.

Brian: Yeah, and I think that we're taking all the learning from everything we do and building on it even further. Our parent company O2E Brands is ordinary to exceptional, and everything we do is about taking ordinary businesses, junk removal couldn't have been more ordinary when I started, and we made it exceptional through the branding and the customer experience. Now we're doing the same thing to the painting world, the moving world, the house detailing and window washing world; who knows what's next. The goal is a billion in revenue by the end of 2021 with ten brands. And it's not a money-making thing, there's not a lot of billion dollar Vancouver companies; so to stand out knowing that we made a difference in the business world and the lives of people culturally is special.

You're really successful in Vancouver and as an entrepreneur, do you think about the place that you live? As a 22 year old entrepreneur it's a big decision I am just starting to make now and would love some insight.

Brian: I'm inspired in Vancouver. I love Whistler, I ski almost every weekend with my family. I love the mountains, I love the ocean, I love the forest. So to me Vancouver's home, and you need to start something in a place where you feel inspired. Could there be more efficiencies to my business and my life is I was in Toronto or New York? Possibly, but it's not worth giving up the inspirational side of if I'm doing something special.

Vancouver's a smaller market and there aren't as many big head offices; so for a company like ours that's growing it's been harder to find really seasoned people, but you've got to deal with that. We hire on attitude and train on skill, so a lot of it is just finding really great people and then building them up.

O2E Brands strives to make the ordinary businesses of junk removal, painting, moving and home detailing exceptional by being leaders in customer experience and innovation.

You're one of the more interesting companies in town; O2E and HootSuite are two of the most recognizable companies. It's sort of like, "Where do I want to work?" you know you're not competing with Apple or Google, you can keep really good talent out of match.

Brian: We can stand out in this market, but it's also harder because you don't have the big brands to pull people from as easily. Also the real estate in Vancouver is so ridiculously expensive that it's hard to pull people from the U.S. and say, "Hey why don't you come live in our city where EVERYTHING is over a million bucks?

It seems like one of your biggest strengths is creative PR; do you have any tips for being creative with PR and thinking about things this way?

Brian: It's just paying attention to press and thinking differently. Seeing opportunities in a situation where someone might not.

Brian: One crazy example: we teach our truck teams to always be on the lookout for opportunities, and two of our 1-800-GOT-JUNK guys were driving along one day and some guy comes running out of a store and chased by someone else because this guy was robbing the store. The 1-800-GOT-JUNK guys got out of the truck and helped catch the guy. It turns out the guy was stealing a bag of shrimp, so right away they pick up the phone and they call our office and they're like, "Guys, we just caught a shrimp thief!" I mean it's ridiculous, and it made the evening news.

We're just always thinking about how we can get that awareness and that attention.

When the Canucks years ago were in the playoffs we decided that we were gonna do a media stunt, and we put on blue wigs. We gave out a thousand wigs at the Canucks games, and a thousand wigs in 18,000 people, those blue wigs stand out. Everyone's like "Where'd you get those, what's that about?"

So fun is kind of an element in that, too?

Brian: Yeah have fun, be different. Everyone in the press is looking for a story every day. People have writer's block, people are stuck, so when there's a journalist, help give them a story. Pick up the phone and call and say, "Hey I've got a great idea for you." and run it by them.

What is often overlooked when building a company?

Brian: I think people don't talk about how hard it really is. If you knew how hard it was going to be on day one, you wouldn't do it. That's why so few people do actually start businesses, because it isn't easy. But if you REALLY knew how hard it was going to be and how much you were scraping the bottom of the barrel financially, and making wrong people decisions and all the stuff that happens to entrepreneurs, if you knew how hard it was I don't think you'd do it.

What's funny is once you're so into it and you care so much, there's just no way that anything can stop you once you've gotten your momentum going.

Brian: Absolutely. It's absolutely worth doing. I think most entrepreneurs don't talk about how hard it actually is and all the challenges you face, but it is that challenge that makes it worthwhile. If you didn't have to overcome anything, it would be boring.

What personal traits or strengths helped you stand out as an entrepreneur?

Brian: I think vision. There's a quote from Walt Disney which we love, "It's kind of fun to do the impossible" I love going, "Wow, nobody wants to do that because it's impossible. We're going to figure out a way to make it possible." I think storytelling and captivating the vision in my mind, and being crystal clear as to here's what it looks like. I'm bad at figuring out how to get there, but that's where I've got Eric Church - who's our president and COO. He's great at encapsulating - taking the vision and packaging it into a plan and going, "Okay, let's rally the team now."

So I'm an entrepreneur who is earlier in my journey than you are - how do you cultivate skills like that, or SHOULD you cultivate skills like that to be successful in business?

Brian: I think it's the Marcus Buckingham "Focus on your strengths, don't try and fix weaknesses" I was a terrible reader and I'm STILL a terrible reader. I just focus on the stuff that I've been gifted with. So I think it's cultivating your gifts much more than trying to improve your weaknesses.

What are three things a starting entrepreneur should focus on?

Brian: Vision, people, and systems.

Vision is number one, it's knowing where you're going, but don't even think about how you're going to get there. Think of where you want to change the world and create a business that can do that. Don't think about all the steps, don't get overwhelmed, just think about the destination.

Second: People. The very first employee you hire, the second, the third, the five hundredth employee, be incredibly selective. Don't ever compromise on people. If you bring in one bad apple, it spoils the whole bunch.

Number three: Systems. Take everything that you created the business with that you're good at, and put it into a one page best practice and say, "Okay here's how we do things." Teach someone else how to do it and improve on it, and get things off your plate as an entrepreneur so you can do it.

Brian is a regular contributor to Forbes, writing about small business ownership and franchising.

Lastly, what is one piece of advice you'd give to your 25-year-old self?

Brian: Never stop believing. When you have that picture in your mind of your vision, don't ever give up. There are so many times in my life where nobody believed in me, and I still had to believe in myself otherwise it's game over. Surround yourself with supporters and continue to believe in where you're going. If you don't know how to get there, it doesn't matter. Just keep believing and you'll get there.

The Small Business Route Out Of Poverty

Raheim Watson grew up in Harlem, New York, surrounded by drugs and violence but decided he wanted a different life when his son was born. He moved to Richmond in 2014, where he has purchased a home, the first one in his family to do so, and, with help from UnBoundRVA, started his own business. His window-washing business is focused on the residential and small-commercial market.

The Small Business Route out of Poverty (by James A. Bacon) - UnBoundRVA is my kind of anti-poverty initiative! The organization identifies people in low-income neighborhoods who have the potential to succeed as small business owners, and then provides them a year of training, advice and networking support as they develop a business plan.

Once the business models are in place, each hopeful business owner makes a pitch for startup capital from a collective pool of $100,000 in low-interest loans. UnBoundRVA then connects the businesses with partners who provide pro bono services in areas such as legal, accounting, marketing and banking.

UnBoundRVA made it into the news recently when the Richmond Times-Dispatch highlighted a $20,000 donation to the group by Pat Hull, the entrepreneur behind logistics apps Getloaded.com and Scoopmonkey.com. “Your dream may not be the next Google. But who cares, if you are supporting your family and creating jobs?”

The not-for-profit enterprise was founded by Sarah Mullens and Richard Luck, who met while teaching in the inner city as part of the Teach for America program. They saw a large number of talented individuals who weren’t pursuing a college track for reasons that had nothing to do with ability or work ethic. “We believe that potential is restricted by the forces of the poverty cycle, and that the human capital of these individuals is our nation’s greatest underutilized asset,” states the UnBoundRVA website.

High-potential individuals in the current class, which will finish in June, are pursuing businesses in the following areas: clean-up services for construction projects, a mobile auto detailing service, a professional house organizing and redesign service, vegan cookies, and a mobile virtual reality gaming experience.

Bacon’s bottom line: Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you feed him for his life. In contrast to so many leftist-inspired “social justice” programs that don’t even feed a man for a day — they teach him to march and protest until someone gives him a fish. UnBoundRVA teaches people to fish. It may not provide a systemic cure for poverty, a goal that has eluded this nation despite the expenditure of trillions of dollars in public and philanthropic anti-poverty programs over the years, but it can make a tremendous difference to the people whose lives it touches.

If you want to address the “root causes” of poverty, you have to change the lives of people one individual at a time. UnBoundRVA does that.

That said, it’s not clear from the website if UnBoundRVA is a cost-effective way to address poverty. The program has an annual budget of $268,000, supporting a staff of four full-time employees and one part-time. How many people does it help with that annual investment? According to the website, UnBoundRVA collects the names of individuals interested in starting their own business, enrolls twelve candidates in a six-week workshop and selects the five most promising for a one-year program of business support. The website does not say how many times it runs through this cycle each year. If only once, not so good. If eight or nine times, helping 40 or more people, that’s more defensible. One thing I do believe: It’s a model worth trying.

About Raheim: I was born in Harlem, New York and raised by my hardworking mother and stepfather. The neighborhood I lived in was filled with drugs and violence, so I figured that was the thing to do. In 2008 when I had my son, I knew I had to rearrange my life. I didn’t want my son to grow up in a neighborhood like the one I did. I wanted to show him that anything is possible, that he can do anything he sets his mind to and that the world is filled with beautiful, great people. So I set two goals: own a home and start my own small business. I moved to Richmond and in 2014 I became the first person in my entire family to close on a home. I then reached my second goal, my own business: Watson’s Windows & Exteriors.

Raheim’s Business: Watson’s Windows & Exteriors is a window washing and power washing business. Watson’s Windows & Exteriors looks to build its competitive advantage by introducing a new technology to the small commercial and residential window-washing sector. Mr. Watson plans to use a system that purifies water that is then sent up a telescopic pole allowing him to clean up to three stories from the ground. This system does not require chemicals or ladders making it the greener, cleaner and safer alternative to conventional window washing. This technology is being used with larger commercial projects, but has not taken off yet in the small commercial and residential sectors. Watson’s Windows & Exteriors will change that.

The Power Of No - The Gift Of Squeegee

He used the money to buy a squeegee and parlayed his token donation into a window washing service. But McGee was even more inspired to see what happened next.

The Surprising Power of a Gift of ‘No’ (by Collette Caprara): The gift of “no”—captivated participants at The Heritage Foundation’s 2015 Antipoverty Forum. The tale was told by the gift’s donor, Patrick McGee, the prison initiatives manager of the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP).

The Prison Entrepreneurship Program is a nonprofit organization that links the nation’s top executives, entrepreneurs and MBA students with convicted felons, providing an entrepreneurship “boot camp” and re-entry programs to prevent recidivism and maximize self sufficiency and transform broken lives.

From personal experience and from his service to incarcerated men, McGee is a firm believer in self-determination, having witnessed the power an entrepreneurial venture can have in providing a threshold to becoming a productive, contributing member of society, even for those whose personal history dims prospects for employment.

So, when one of McGee’s nephew in his early teens asked if he would buy him a pair of athletic shoes, McGee declined the role of the generous uncle. He said, “No.” But he did give his nephew $15, and suggested that he make the most of it.

And his nephew did. He used the money to buy a squeegee and parlayed his token donation into a window washing service. But McGee was even more inspired to see what happened next.

The teen noticed that many of the homes that he visited in his neighborhood needed address markings on their front curbs. In response, he invested a portion of his earnings in stencils and spray paint and broadened his business to include that new service. In time, he had earned enough money to purchase a lawnmower, and soon his lawn-care service expanded to the point where he hired additional youths from his community to take on a portion of his growing list of clients.

McGee reported that his nephew is now finally old enough to get his driver’s permit and that he is very excited about getting his license—not as most teens are, with visions of cruising the streets with friends, but with a plan to purchase a truck to take his growing enterprise on the road. McGee summed up his story with a wink and a declaration: “That is a pretty good return on the gift of a No and $15!”

Had McGee chosen to purchase those athletic shoes, they may well have been replaced and discarded by now. In contrast, his small contribution came with a lesson that will serve his nephew for a lifetime.

Inspired Business

Marc Whitbread, 23, of Church Crookham, has been nominated as Young Business Person of the Year in the Inspire Business Awards 2015.

Inspire Business Awards 2015: Whitbread's Window Cleaning looks to scoop Young Business Person prize - The company Marc Whitbread founded as a teenager has seen him nominated for Young Business Person of the Year.

He was just 17 when he launched his window cleaning company which today boasts more than 700 clients, and now Church Crookham entrepreneur Marc Whitbread has been nominated for an Inspire Business award .

Marc employs two full-time staff at his firm, Whitbread’s Window Cleaning, operating across Aldershot, Camberley, Farnham, Farnborough, Fleet, Hook, Sandhurst, Yateley and other areas on the Hampshire-Surrey border.

The ambitious 23-year-had originally wanted to become a chef and had started training in kitchens. “I was fed up with the low pay and working with people, so looked into businesses I could set up,” he recalled. “When I was 12 I saw a guy with a water-fed pole system, which lets you clean windows from the ground, and it just stuck with me. “I started looking into start-up costs and did some market research, and thought it had good potential.”

The company now has 720 regular clients, and Mr Whitbread hopes to take on more staff every year – the next intake in the spring. He has just bought a third van which will be ready to use in November.

Marc says the secret is the combination of having the right attitude and filling a gap in the market. “There’s been a demand but I have always been very determined and put in the hours,” he added. “A lot of people are just comfortable standing still, but for what? “I want to grow a business not just be a window cleaner.”

When asked what he makes of being nominated for Young Business Person of the Year, he said: “I’m really pleased. I didn’t know how popular the awards were, but I was really pleased to find out that I had been shortlisted.”

Entrepreneur Window Cleaner Goes Social

"When I first started this business it was simply a means to provide for my family. I chose window cleaning because it paid well and was flexible enough for my wife and I to continue in out volunteer work.

Entrepreneur uses Instagram for positive business stories: Entrepreneur Chadwick Washington says it is a popular misconception that nothing good comes from social media. He said he wants to use Instagram, as well as Twitter and Facebook, to spread positive messages and inspirational stories from small business owners.

"These random pop culture references aren't doing anything to make you a better person," Washington said. "I know that is a way to get more followers, but that is not what I want. … My real currency is stories. Social media is a wonderful tool, but unfortunately, a majority of what it is used for doesn't make us better people. It's not uplifting, it's not educational, and that's sad."

Washington is a native of Lexington who moved to China for four years and worked as an English teacher. He said his original plan was to relocate overseas permanently, but his plans changed once he met his future wife during a visit home. In 2013, he found himself married with stepchildren and said he needed to find a new way to produce an income. He decided to open his own window washing service, but he was still feeling unsure of himself and was looking for inspiration.

Washington came up with the idea of the Instagram account called Small Business Stories after looking for similar resources to help him keep a positive outlook about owning his own business.

"I went on Instagram to find some motivating accounts that were business related, but I couldn't find any," Washington said. "I found business accounts, but they would have quotes from all these famous leaders, like Ghandi or Muhammad Ali, which is great, but how do I translate that to my life? What I was trying to find was an account that had stories from small business people talking about their challenges, triumphs and everything in between. Since I couldn't find that, I said, 'Why don't I just create it?'"

Chadwick Washington (right) uses social media, primarily Instagram, to help tell inspirational tales about small business owners in Lexington. Here Washington interviews All About Education owner Toby Prince.

Washington said his mother told him about Lexington Mayor Newell Clark, and his mission to promote Lexington as a progressive and forward-thinking community. Clark is also an avid user of social media. Washington said he had a meeting with Clark, who encouraged him to spend time highlighting the small businesses in Lexington throughout March.

"I had a flash of inspiration and got in touch with the mayor just to gauge his interest," Washington said. "I was able to sit down with him and talk about how I could focus on Lexington. He invited me to profile local small businesses and even had a few suggestions of businesses that he thought I would like."

Clark said he was happy to support a hometown champion who wants to use social media to feature business owners in the city.

"I've talked about social media and how we can leverage it to get our message out," Clark said. "He (Washington) was already down the road on what he was doing, but he got really excited about featuring his hometown. … He was so impressed with what has happened with uptown since he has gotten back. … More than anything else, I think it is folks working together that is making it successful.

"You will hear me talk about Lexington, but you will also hear me talk about Davidson County and the Triad. We are a big Triad neighbours, and we are really honing down on that by saying, 'Let's support each other, and let's promote each other.' Chadwick's story is about featuring how we are working together to transform this community, and I was glad to support him."

Washington said he is not selling anything and is not trying to become rich; he just wants to provide a platform where small business owners can join in the conversation, tell their stories and be inspired by other local entrepreneurs.

"In the middle of it all is storytelling," Washington said. "I'm not paying for advertising or trying to make money. I have all these ideas, but at the center of it is am I telling a good story?. … When I wake up in the morning, I want to read something uplifting. All I'm doing is trying to get their story, not a business bio. I want to know where their passion comes from."

This is my motivation. Until May of 2014 I had been content to roam the world as a traveling educator. Taiwan, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Guyana, Trinidad .... I was free and lost at the same time. It wasn't until I met my wife and my stepdaughter that I realized I had a reason to stay in one place, that if I just put down roots I might have something to offer my community. For the first time in my life I have not just one but TWO people that depend on me, so I decided to start my own window cleaning business. That is my motivation, that is what drives me to keep fighting even though I know I'm behind the curve in almost every way. I spent almost a decade of my life bouncing from one place to the next. You learn a lot by traveling, what I didn't know is how much you can grow if you can just decide to settle down. I can't fail because it's not just about me anymore."

FiSH Entrepreneur Talks Texas

FiSH franchise - hard to miss.

Starting From Scratch After 15 Years in the Workforce: Franchise Players is Entrepreneur’s Q&A interview column that puts the spotlight on franchisees. Before becoming a franchisee, Eric Silver spent years piecing together what entrepreneurship meant for him. He worked at businesses small and large while he tried to think of an idea that could spark his career as a business owner. Today, as a franchisee, he has realized that his passion isn't a product: it is the act of running a business. Here's what Silver has learned as a Fish Window Cleaning franchisee.

Name: Eric Silver (pictured). Franchise owned: Fish Window Cleaning, with three locations in Denton, Fort Worth and North Arlington, Texas.

How long have you owned a franchise?

Six years. We opened the Denton location in 2008. We purchased Fort Worth in 2012 and we purchased North Arlington in 2014.

Why franchising?

I have always wanted to own my own business, but for years I struggled with what made sense. I liked doing a lot of things, but I wasn’t passionate about anything I could produce that people would buy. Turns out I was passionate about running a successful business.

I was taking a class on entrepreneurship at the University of Dallas while pursuing an MBA. We discussed franchising as part of the course. It was at this time where I really started to see the benefits of owning and operating a franchise. When I was ready to make the leap, my wife and I had just had our son. He was one month old at the time and I knew that I needed to do something that gave myself the best chance of success possible. I saw the relationship with the franchisor as a positive since they have a tremendous amount of interest in your success. For me, franchising at that point in my life and without having any other real business ownership experience made a ton of sense.

What were you doing before you became a franchise owner?

I had been in sales for several years. Directly prior to opening the first franchise location I was a district sales manager for a major yellow page publisher. At that point I had worked for a small business, a medium-sized business and a large corporation. I didn’t really feel comfortable and any of them.

Why did you choose this particular franchise?

There were really three things I liked:

Low investment/Quick ROI

Focus on commercial accounts

Family-friendly environment and work schedule

How much would you estimate you spent before you were officially open for business?

I spent about $30,000 on the initial franchise purchase, about $5,000 on equipment, and about $2,000 for training and first month lease payment.

Where did you get most of your advice/do most of your research?

I did a lot of research online. I also talked to business owners in the community where I was planning to open the business to get their take on the need for this type of service. I asked some of the other small business owners I knew through work.

What were the most unexpected challenges of opening your franchise?

Managing cash flow and employment. Everything I read said that cash is the lifeblood of your business. Makes sense, right? Well, when it all rests on your shoulders, you're trying to sell more accounts, service them, find employees, hire employees, train employees and be the “everything” to your business it is challenging. I learned a lot about business in my first 15 years in the workforce and in my pursuit of an MBA. However, the rubber really hit the road when I invested nearly everything my wife and I had in a business and started from scratch.

What advice do you have for individuals who want to own their own franchise?

It can be very daunting in the beginning. You are now your own boss. It is truly up to you. You find out very quickly whether you are up to it. My recommendations are:

Always be focused on revenue generating activities such as sales and marketing. Never put these off.

Watch your money and accounts receivable. You earned this money. It is yours. Don’t let anyone make you feel guilty for attempting to collect what is owed to you.

When in doubt, put your head down and work harder. It’s easy to get discouraged. It’s rewarding to power through. My experience has been people get discouraged too easily. Call another franchisee. Ask them what they did to get through this patch. Call your franchisor and ask for help. Don’t sit and stew. Just don’t stop moving forward. The minute you stop and think you can’t do it you will find out you are right.

What’s next for you and your business?

We bought our third location this past summer. We are constantly focused on growth and opportunity. We are always looking to get better and become the best at what we do.

Business profile: Eric Silver

Occupation: president, Fish Window Cleaning in Denton

The one thing I enjoy most about my work is: working with people from North Texas.

My business philosophy is: Take care of your clients, and everything else will take care of itself.

If I could, I'd be: an NFL quarterback.

I'm so sick of: politics and taxes.

The four guests at my fantasy dinner party would be: Neil Diamond, Jack Black, Will Arnett and David Spade.

My hobbies are: brewing beer and motorcycling.

The last book I read was: Customer Loyalty: How to Earn it, How to Keep It by Jill Griffin.

I wish I knew how to: play guitar.

My worst habit is: procrastinating.

Nobody knows I: am almost finished with my MBA.

The person I most admire is: any person who sacrifices to serve our country.

My guilty pleasure is: pecan pie.

I drive a: Toyota Tacoma.

I'd like to be driving a: Toyota Tundra.

My favorite restaurant is: I can't choose just one. There are too many great ones here.

I'm happiest when: everything is running smoothly.

I regret: not moving to Texas sooner.

If I won the lottery, here's what I'd do just for me: buy a new Harley.

If I could change one thing about Denton, it would be: the traffic.

When I retire, I plan to: enjoy spending time with my family.

A former FISH Operations Manager is currently answering questions on this forum now.

Retiring Window Cleaner Was Innovator

Les Hulicsko, founder of Rite Way Manufacturing and Python Manufacturing, is finally retiring at age 78 from the Regina company he started.

Hulicsko retiring on his own terms - Innovator built many devices: Les Hulicsko escaped from Hungary on Dec. 8, 1956, after the revolution he supported was crushed by Soviet forces, forcing him to flee to North America. But the Russians couldn't crush the engineering student's revolutionary spirit. In many ways, Hulicsko never stopped being a revolutionary - revolutionizing everything from rock picking and street sweeping to pothole patching and window cleaning. He was always designing, building and marketing new products and starting new businesses from the time he arrived in his adopted country in 1957.

"Think outside of the box. That's the way we did things," said Hulicsko, on the eve of his last official day at work at Superior-Roads Solutions/Rite Way Manufacturing, the company he founded more than 40 years ago. "And, of course, they're going to tell you it cannot be done. But I said a lot of times: 'Well, watch me!'" Hulicsko said with a laugh.

Of course, serendipity played a role in the 78 year old serial entrepreneur and inventor's remarkably eventful life. But his luck was largely of his own making, driven by a relentless desire to find ways of doing things better, faster and more efficiently.

When Hulicsko left Hungary at 20, he went to France, where he stayed in a refugee camp and worked at a manufacturing plant for eight months. But he dreamt of going to the U.S. "As a young boy, my dream was to go to the Americas. Of course, it was out of the question because of the Iron Curtain. But the opportunity came when the revolution came. And, as it turned out, it was a necessary thing for me to do.'

A few years ago, Hulicsko discovered that Hungary's infamous death squad - the so-called Pufajkas, named for the large WWII vintage Russian overcoats they wore - had searched his former residence in 1957. "They were looking for me. They raided the place. (His former roommate) was afraid they were going to shoot him if they found my rifle. They didn't find my rifle ... I really didn't know how lucky I was.'

Another bit of serendipity was his decision to relocate to Regina. "My hope was to get into the U.S. ... but the quota (for refugees) was filled. I got tired of waiting, and Canada was open, so I came to Canada." He chose Regina because it was in the middle of the continent and close to the U.S. where he intended to immigrate. But, once he got here, he never left.

Another bit of luck was aggravating an old wrestling injury while working construction in Regina. "I reinjured the knee ... and couldn't work in construction. So a friend said, 'why don't you come and clean windows?' That was my break. I got into an industry that was very simple, I couldn't speak the language," and his boss (ironically, a Russian immigrant) was illiterate, but very successful.

"He was telling me how successful the business was, but I saw the inefficiency in the business.' So after a year or two, Hulicsko started Rite Way, a window cleaning company "because I thought I could do better.' Soon Rite Way was cleaning windows in the tallest buildings in the city, including the Legislative Building, because of innovations Hulicsko introduced.

http://www.cfee.org/en/pdf/spiritofadventure5.pdf

For example, Hulicsko noticed that window cleaning was labour intensive, with highly skilled and paid workers doing the labour; so he replaced the laborious process of cleaning windows with a sponge, cheesecloth and chamois with a simple device, known as a squeegee. And he gave his cleaners several sizes of squeegees to clean various sizes of window panes.

He also invested an astronomical $7,000 into a "Sky Climber,' a motorized scaffold or deck for cleaning windows on skyscrapers. When Hulicsko complained about the cost, saying he could buy two Volkswagens for the same money, the salesman told him: "Les, if you can clean windows with Volkswagens, go ahead and do it." He also learned a valuable lesson. "If you build a tool that is valuable, it doesn't really matter what it costs."

Hulicsko's next business venture was rock pickers. As a sideline to his window cleaning business, Hulicsko set up a machine shop to design and custom build one-off pieces of equipment and road signs in the late 1960s. During a slow period, an employee suggested he manufacture rock pickers, which were used for clearing rocks from agricultural land. The problem was you needed two rock pickers: a rotary machine to pick up small rocks and a fork-type machine to pick up large ones.

After considerable thought and experimentation, Hulicsko designed a rock picker that could do both, utilizing hydraulics to increase the power of the machine. "I had the idea of using hydraulics to drive the reel, then we could do both jobs.' He also simplified the design, reducing the number of bats on the reel, which reduced the incidence of rocks clogging the machines.

His rock pickers were such a runaway success that other manufactures soon copied Hulicsko's design, making hydraulic-driven rock pickers the standard in the industry. Since 1972, Rite Way has been manufacturing several sizes of rock pickers at its plant in Imperial, north of Regina.

In the late 1970s, Hulicsko stumbled onto another business that needed his talents. As part of his window cleaning business, Hulicsko was doing parking lot maintenance, using street sweepers to clean the lots. "I would (harangue) the engineer who designed these machines because they were always breaking down and if you needed to fix the machines you had to tear them apart."

So he designed a tow-type sweeper that could be pulled behind a tractor, using hydraulics in place of "sprockets and chains' to reduce the number of moving parts. "We built 75 of these machines. Some of them are still running. So that got me into the sweeper business.' Sweeprite Manufacturing, as the street sweeper company was called, began in 1978. "Shortly after I built a self-propelled unit - the Sweep-Rite 2400 - and a slightly smaller one called the Sweep-Rite 2200. It was really revolutionary."

The S2500 uses proven  sweeping technology to provide you with excellent sweeping performance. The S2500 takes on millings, trash, sand, gravel, dirt, leaves, bottles and paper. And, no special driver's license is required to operate the S2500.

Once again, using hydraulics, Hulicsko improved the power, capability and reliability of self-propelled street sweepers. "It revolutionized the street sweeping industry." And just like the rock picking business, all street sweepers use hydraulics today; Hulicsko was just the first.

Of course, not all Les's inventions caught on like wildfire. Hulicsko designed a combine in the early 2000s, called the Python, which replaced all the pulleys and belts of a conventional combine with - you guessed it - hydraulics. While he did manufacture a number of the machines, the Python faced some pretty tough competition, in the form of the giants of the industry, New Holland, John Deere, to name a few.

The combine project died a natural death, but the name lives on in the Python 5000, a one-person pothole patcher that probably ranks as one of Hulicsko's most ingenious inventions. It can patch a pothole in two minutes, while the operator sits safely in an air-conditioned cab, reducing both labour costs and workplace injuries. The Python 5000 continues to be built at the Regina plant,

In 2012, Python Manufacturing Inc. was taken over by a Saskatoon-based venture capital fund, Golden Opportunities, and the federal Business Development Bank of Canada, which bought the business from Hulicsko. Earlier this year, the company changed its name from Python Manufacturing to SuperiorRoads Solutions to manufacture and market the pothole patcher and street sweepers, while Rite-Way Manufacturing remains the company's brand name for rock pickers, harrows, land rollers and other field preparation equipment.

As a businessman, Hulicsko has had his ups and downs, having started, lost and bought back his various businesses several times. "It's been an interesting, roller-coaster ride, but overall it's been a very rewarding ride,' he said, without a trace of bitterness or regret.

While he won't be coming into the office at 1891 Albert St. N. on a regular basis anymore, Hulicsko isn't ready to give up working. "I can't see myself retiring. I've got to do something. I've got ideas on many things and, of course, not all of them can be achieved. Some of them may be out of reach, some of the things I'm going to be working on ... (will be) on a project by project basis.' During his long career, Hulicsko has been called many things: a dreamer, an inventor, an entrepreneur, even a genius. Hulicsko prefers to think of himself as an innovator, rather than an inventor.

"I had the image of an inventor - I've seen so many of them - they could dream, but they could never really put (their dreams) into practice. I had dreams, but I didn't try to sell (an idea) until I could build it and produce it. I'm more of a realistic inventor, if there is such a thing.'